If you have a business and are thinking of enhancing your digital marketing strategy beyond your own website, YouTube can be a great tool. YouTube is today the second largest search engine in the world, losing only to Google (which by the way owns YouTube). That’s why, if you do a Google search, for example, YouTube videos are often among the results provided. Have you noticed? This is because, in addition to those videos being linked to the topic of your research, they also have good SEO practices.
In summary: having interesting and well-produced videos on your YouTube channel can be interesting for your business. But having interesting videos posted following basic SEO rules is much better. Along with optimized posts on your website, optimized videos can be a great way to get more leads, sell more and expand your customer base.
And how to do SEO for YouTube? This is exactly what we are going to deal with in this text. Keep reading!
5 Steps to SEO for YouTube
1.Find the best keywords
YouTube’s search engine is not the same as Google’s. Therefore, it is important to understand that the keywords searched for in one are not the same as those searched for in the other. Thus, it is important to raise what are the most used terms within the subject that you will be dealing with in your video.
The easiest way to do this is to open an anonymous YouTube tab and throw in several different terms related to the subject. For example, suppose we were to turn this article into a video. To find the most suitable keywords, we would do a search with terms such as:
- SEO for YouTube;
- YouTube SEO;
- be found on YouTube;
- YouTube searches.
The idea is to have a complete overview of how users do research on this subject on the platform. This will help guide the content production (we’ll talk more about this in tip #4) and also to create your headline.
2. Make a good title and thumbnail for the video
A key difference between Google and YouTube is their focus on the user and how that translates into the algorithm. Google wants to serve the user with the best possible answer so that he/she always uses the search engine. YouTube, on the other hand, wants to offer the content that will keep you on the platform for the longest time.
This difference in focus is translated into the algorithm. At Google, one of the main factors in determining who comes first is authority. The greater the authority, the greater the chances that a new article will rank quickly. On YouTube, the authority of a channel is of lesser importance. What matters most is the CTR (Click Through Rate), the index of people who viewed your title and thumbnail and clicked to see the content. The better the CTR, the more YouTube recommends the video to people.
So, experiment to understand which is the best combination of title and thumbnail for your content. The more optimized your CTR is, the more your video will stand out.
3. Insert tags
YouTube has a tag field that is much overlooked by video creators. Don’t make this mistake: use the fields to be able to catch part of the audience that searches the platform for useful videos.
Let’s say you have a dental clinic in Vancouver. It is important to use tags that inform the search engine what type of content it is. If your video is an explanation of dental treatment with invisible aligners, the tags might include terms like “invisible aligners”, “treatment to align the teeth”, “dental braces”, “invisible aligners in Vancouver” and so on.
The public does not always search for tags on Youtube, but the tool informs the platform’s search engine what type of content it is and makes it easier to recommend your video to those who want to know more about it.
4. Write a good description and turn on subtitles
Before completing the YouTube video upload, be sure to give it a good description of the content, preferably with a short summary of the material, including citing common keywords and terms you found in the tip #1 search.
The idea is to have more textual inputs to be found in searches made on YouTube or Google. The more detailed your description, the more the searcher will understand the subject of the video. The same goes for subtitles, even those automatically generated. After all, captions are indexable and appear in Google results.
5. Encourage audience engagement
Finally, keep in mind that in addition to CTR, YouTube is passionate about engagement. If your videos have a low engagement rate, they tend not to do well on the platform. So, encourage audience participation with video interactions, including questions, CTAs, and more.
Finally, it is important to remember: the ideal is to have a digital marketing approach that is composed of multiple platforms. If you already have a blog with good content in your area, maybe it’s time to invest in videos as well. If you already produce videos, always pay attention to SEO optimization to be found more easily. And if you need help adapting your content to Google’s best practices, please let us know – we can help you with this task.